Reviews (4)

I write this review because all other reviews are a bit outdated; it seems MATH1061 has been restructured.

All of the concepts are taught through videos made by Dr Sarada Herke which are on blackboard and are quite good. In the face-to-face lectures, the lecturer assumes that you have watched the videos and goes through applications of the concepts you have just learnt and solves problems with the class. This is great because you can study at your own pace, and not only that it's great because you don't have to furiously take notes during the lectures. You can watch the videos on blackboard even if you aren't enrolled to the course.
The videos cover exactly the same material taught in the textbook, so the textbook isn't necessary. But, if you want a 7, you should get the textbook because it's very well written.

On top of the problems covered in the lectures which are rather harder, there are the tutorial questions which you go through with your tutor. I guess if you try all of the tutorial questions on your own and have no difficulty with them you don't have to go to the tutorials. But if that's not the case then you should go to the tutorials because the tutor should go quite in depth and give you good tips and stuff.

As for the assessments, there are online quizzes you need to complete before every lecture which covers what you would have just learnt in the videos. These are pretty easy but it's just tiresome to do them before every lecture (3 times a week). Still, they account for 10% of your grade and it's quite easy to get all 10% so I would say this is a plus. There are also assignments which are problem sets; some questions can be tricky while some are easy. Not too bad. Prepares you for the exams quite well. For the mid-semester and final exams, it's quite easy to prepare for them because you're given either sample exams, past exams, or both. However, I would say that the sample exams do not reflect the difficulty of the actual exams properly, so you should do the past exams where possible.

Because you'll be given a lot of material to study with (videos, textbook, lectures, tutorials, assignments, quizzes, sample and past exams), it's course that really holds your hand as you encounter mathematics.

Now let us discuss the actual content of MATH1061. If you're interested in the rather philosophical (or 'pure' as they say) side of mathematics, this is the course for you. It introduces formal logic, proofs, combinatorics, functions, groups, set theory, functions, matrices, graphs (no not that kind of statistical graphs) and all the other fun stuff. One of the reviews mentioned that this is not real mathematics, but they are wrong because this is probably more mathematical than say MATH1051. Damn IT kids. Talking of IT kids, there are a lot of maths majors as well as IT or CS majors in the course because it's compulsory for them, but there seemed to be also physics majors and philosophy majors doing it as electives, so if you fall under the latter category don't be deterred by the fact that it's 'mathematics'.

The only issue I may pose about MATH1061 is that it covers a lot of concepts in one course but doesn't go too deep into them. Other than that, it's a really fun course.

*It won't let me state the semester taken as Semester 2 2017, probably because Sem 1 2018 hasn't started yet, but that's when I took the course despite it saying Semester 1 - 2017 below. My lecturer was Barbara Maenhaut who was a great lecturer and was very helpful and attentive with students' needs.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2017

Your program/major

Mathematics & Statistics

Is lecture attendance necessary?

No, important concepts are covered in the videos but you should still watch the lecture recordings though

Is the textbook necessary?

No, but I recommend it - you can find the pdf literally from a google search

Positives

Lots of hand-holding; well structured course

Fun maths

Negatives

Not much

IT kids

Online quizzes before every lecture - it's kind of good though because it forces you to stay on top of things and not fall behind

Overall review, the course was alright, the assignments were easy and the exams were reasonably easy so long as you study in advance, the pre-lecture quizzes were sometimes a nuisance but I found surprisingly helpful.

Lectures: Sometimes are boring, but that's just the content of the course, if you aren't into logic or similar areas of maths you'll probably find the lectures boring, but not really something you want to miss (with exception for the occasional one)

Tutorials: Waste of time, I found they just went over the same content in the lectures, so if you have a question and can't find it online (including forums) go and ask the lecturer, but apart from that just miss it, and if you want to keep on top of things, do the tutorial sheet when it gets uploaded to blackboard.

Note: Textbook which is prescribed is not needed as all the info is supplied however, they do tell you to do readings on pages for HW, so if you're looking for a 7, pickup the textbook.

Math1061 is the easiest subject I have ever taken. The only way you could find it genuinely hard is if you don't have a mathematical brain at all and have to take it as part of your program. Seriously, most of the course is definitions and applying those mathematical definitions to well-rehearsed situations. Obviously, there's a massive downside to this - it's super boring. I love maths and it was really, really boring. My suggestion to anyone who grasps mathematical concepts rather easily is to not go to a single lecture and either watch the recordings at 1.5x speed, or complete the workbook without watching the lecture at all. Then you can actually enjoy whatever interesting mathematics is at play without the lethargy of sitting in a boring lecture. Don't get me wrong, the lecturer, Diane, is absolutely lovely and genuinely cares that everyone understands a concept and does well, but this care borders on high school-style or over-bearing parent. Although the occasional anecdote about her kids and the sort really endeared me to her, her frequent gaffs make lectures move slow. Love you, Diane, but speed it up please.

The course is largely unstructured, with only mid-sem and final exams and four assignments. The assignments range in difficulty from super easy to mildly challenging, and the exams are exactly as you would expect them to be from past papers. No surprises there. The tutorials were so boring and useless that it's inutility is trumped only by the contacts. They present more problems and work through them in the contact (from what I could tell) but no one goes. The tutorial (again, as far as I could gather) was largely just time to work on problems and assignments with a bit of guidance from the tutor. You probably won't need any help provided you keep up with the very slow pace of the lectures.

So overall, an easy subject that may bore you to death. I wouldn't recommend it as an elective to anyone unless they need to boost their GPA, but if you have to do it as part of your program, it's not a bad deal at all. If anyone's looking for an interesting first year maths subject to do as an elective, math1051 is definitely the way to go.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2014

Your program/major

BSc

Is lecture attendance necessary?

No

Is the textbook necessary?

No

Positives

Easy 7

Lecturer genuinely cares

Easy assessment

Negatives

Boring

Tutorials and contacts are a waste of time (and lectures too for that matter)

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